Highlights

The USWNT booked passage to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup with an imperious 6-0 victory over Jamaica on Sunday night, and setup a much-anticipated CONCACAF Women’s Championship final against Canada in the process.

With automatic qualification hanging in the balance, the U.S. raced out to a 5-0 lead by the 33rd minute, and it would be ridiculous to single out an individual for praise in the face of such overall team excellence.

Panama kept Canada in check for 44 minutes Sunday, but a seven-goal, 34-minute spell ended the Central American’s hopes of an astonishing upset at the semifinal stage of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. By advancing to the final, Canada secured automatic qualification to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, where it’ll look to improve on a quarterfinal showing at the 2015 finals on home soil.

With the scores level at 2-2 in an ACC game between Duke (No. 11 in the country) and Clemson, Blue Devils senior midfielder Taylor Racioppi struck what would prove to be the match-winner in the 77th minute from 24 yards out. 

Using the outside of her boot to full effect, Racioppi put some fiendish swaz on her effort, which took an extremely pleasant banana route inside the far post. The first time you see it, you’ll want to celebrate just like Racioppi did. 

Thierry Henry is returning to the club where it all began for him. The Arsenal and France legend, who also played for Barcelona, Juventus and New York Red Bulls, was hired as manager of AS Monaco on Saturday, his first head coaching job. 

Henry, 41, served as an assistant coach for the Belgian national team (which lost to France in the 2018 World Cup semifinals) for two years and reportedly had offers to coach Aston Villa and the Egyptian national team.

Olimpicos — scoring directly from a corner kick — are a rare occurrence at the top level of football. Goalkeepers are usually too astute, too tall and too athletic to allow someone to score from a corner. But this Mo Salah Olimpico on Friday showed it’s not impossible. 

This whole Usain Bolt soccer experiment thing? It might just work.

Back in August, Bolt played in an exhibition match for the Central Coast Mariners, a club from Australia’s A-League. He didn’t score, but he showed he’s got a bit of skill to go with his blazing speed. 

Michael Bradley returned to the U.S. national team one year and one day from the worst day in U.S. men’s soccer history. He returned just in time to guide his team to a 4-2 loss to Colombia on Thursday in Tampa, Florida, with the pro-Colombian crowd chanting “Olé!” with glee in the closing minutes after Colombia scored three goals in 23 minutes in the second half.

It’s hard not to like Kylian Mbappé.

Time magazine announced he would become the fourth footballer to grace its cover on Thursday and the feature story on the 19-year-old included this statement on giving his $500,000 World Cup bonus to charity.

“(It) does not change my life, but it changes theirs,” Mbappé said.

What’s not to love?